In Tessa Dare’s dazzling new trilogy, the men of the Stud Club live and play by their own rules—until passion changes the game.
The bastard son of a nobleman, Julian Bellamy is now polished to perfection, enthralling the ton with wit and charm while clandestinely plotting to ruin the lords, ravish the ladies, and have the last laugh on a society that once spurned him. But after meeting Leo Chatwick, a decent man and founder of an elite gentlemen’s club, and Lily, Leo’s enchanting sister, Julian reconsiders his wild ways. And when Leo’s tragic murder demands that Julian hunt for justice, he vows to see the woman he secretly loves married to a man of her own class.
Lily, however, has a very different husband in mind. She’s loved Julian forever, adores the man beneath the rakish façade, and wants to savor the delicious attraction they share—as his wife. His insistence on marrying her off only reinforces her intent to prove that he is the only man for her. Obsessed with catching a killer, Julian sinks back to the gutters of his youth, forcing Lily to reach out with a sweet, reckless passion Julian can’t resist. Can her desire for a scoundrel save them both—or will dangerous secrets threaten more than their tender love?
Whenever you have a series where characters present in the beginning books have their own book later on, there's always a bit of apprehension and fear involved. Sometimes it's whether the characters gets the romance they deserve.
In other cases, like Three Nights with a Scoundrel, you wonder how the hell the author is going to redeem a character you don't particularly like. Enter Julian Bellamy.
I can't say that the previous two books endeared me to Julian, and though we already know Lily loves him, it was hard to see why. But one must trust Tessa Dare because she knows what she's doing. I may have wanted to whack Julian upside the head, but his character was well-developed enough that I could totally wrap my arms around him. Ahem.
Three Nights with a Scoundrel is the last in the Stud Club trilogy. (Seriously. Stud Club. You should read for the name alone.) The murder that happened in One Dance with a Duke is solved. Though the mystery wasn't ever a huge part of the story---more like something that strings everything together---it was a damn good mystery.
And Lily was awesome. She's reeling from the loss of her twin brother and she's learning how to be on her own and deaf, but she kicks serious ass and reaches out to grab what she wants in life. I loved how well she and Julian were matched, especially considering his history. (Which we finally get answers for. Yay!)
If you're a fan of historical romance and you haven't tried Tessa Dare yet, you may just be missing out on some seriously good books.
